Joy on Joy: The Mazda Miata Super20

By
Davey G. Johnson

May 8, 2012

The Mazda MX-5 embodies a duality: it's both many a driving purist's platonic ideal and a hairdresser's special, a charming little sunny-day drop-top that will put a smile on the face of just about anyone who gives it a chance.

Despite the car's less-than-manly public reputation, we're suspect of Miata haters, blessed as the car is with an abundance of attributes that make automobiles, well, wonderful.

To celebrate the car's 20th anniversary a couple of years back, Mazda engineers added a hardtop, cranked up the horsepower, tightened up the suspension and upped the braking force and the grip. In short, they went about erasing any semblance of chick car-ness. The resultant one-off, known as the Super20, could've been a disaster, perverting the beloved roadster's sweetheart characteristics.

To be fair, the engineers did manage to pervert said characteristics—in the best possible way. Judiciously combining off-the-shelf components with an OEM budget, a bit of futzing and a Skip Barber school bus paint-and-decal job, the Super20 is a bit of a monster—a cranky, whizzing goblin.

In temperament, it recalls a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 with the Ultimate Performance Package. The 16-by-eight-inch wheels shod with 245-section R-compound Toyos might have something to do with it; the Vette rides on similarly uncompromising Michelin Pilot Sport Cup rubber.

But whereas the track-day-special Vette seems to actively want to kill you, the amped-up Miata is a bit more of a jokester—“Oh, you thought it was all over? Yeah, just kidding. Don't worry, pal, I've got you.”

The heart of all of this delinquency is the Cosworth-built supercharged 2.0-liter engine. Mazda Development engineer Dave Coleman told us that while the company doesn't have a power figure from the flywheel, on a chassis dyno, the car was churning out 225 hp at the rear wheels. It's been clocked to 60 mph at about 5.5 seconds.

That 5.5 number doesn't seem particularly quick by today's X-15-hypercar standards, but trust us, with the gases roaring out through the Racing Beat exhaust, the sticky Toyos hooking up and the direct-connection-now behavior of the beefed-up clutch, one never feels at a loss for accelerative experience.

What's more, the car loves to be flogged—it's pure canned hoon. Scruff-of-the-neck inputs result in surprisingly smooth output. Nail a rev-matched downshift—which requires quick footwork because of the light flywheel—and the car simply powers out of a corner.

What's more, it doesn't feel as if such behavior is going to break the cutie. It encourages one to explore the limits of the car, an attribute that's always been a Miata strong suit. It's just that here, the limits are significantly higher.

Knocks? There are not too many. The car is exceptionally well-sorted for something that was thrown together for a SEMA display. The widened 16-inch Enkei wheels will occasionally scrub a tire on the inner fender. The off-the-shelf Racing Beat exhaust system was tuned for a Miata, with its soft top in place. In the interest of lightness, Mazda yanked the folding unit. At freeway revs, the resonant frequency of the exhaust makes the hardtop cabin a boomy and buzzy place to be.

It's not a serene car to drive, by any stretch, though the harder one hammers it, the more relaxing it becomes. Isn't that how a sporting machine should be? What's more, you could practically replicate Mazda's work yourself and still have more fun than guys in cars that cost more than twice as much.

It's a Miata. It's just more, and that's no bad thing at all. In fact, it's stupendous.

2010 Mazda MX-5 Super20

BASE PRICE: N/A

DRIVETRAIN: Supercharged 2.0-liter, 250 hp (est.), RWD, manual

CURB WEIGHT: 2,652 lb

0-60 MPH: 5.5 sec (est)

FUEL ECONOMY: 18 mpg (AW observed)

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